Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen of the standing committee, thank you for giving us this opportunity to meet you and express our support for Bill C-11, which is desperately needed and long overdue. We hope Parliament passes this legislation as soon as possible.
I am Kirwan Cox, and my colleague is Kenneth Hirsch, from the Quebec English-language Production Council. We represent the English-language film, TV, and media production industries in Quebec. Our objective is to increase the production of films and television by the official language minority in Quebec, which, unfortunately, is now at its lowest level in history. QEPC strives both to increase the vitality of English programming in Quebec and to support Canadian content in both official languages across the country.
Today, we will focus on the official-language minority elements of the act. We are very pleased to see that the official-language minority measures adopted by this committee in Bill C-10, and passed by the House of Commons, have again been proposed by the minister in Bill C-11.
Not since the original Official Languages Act was passed over 50 years ago has any legislation been more important to the vitality, if not the survival, of both official-language minorities than Bill C-11 as now written.
We hope you will support these measures that are so important to us, to our French colleagues, and to the larger Canadian cultural sector.